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Preakness Stakes
The Preakness Stakes is a Grade I Stakes race for three-year-old thoroughbred racehorses, held on the third Saturday in May at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a distance of 1-3/16 mile, or 9-1/2 furlongs. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds (57 kg) and fillies carry 121 pounds (55 kg). It is the second leg in the U.S. Triple Crown, preceded by the Kentucky Derby, and followed three weeks later by the Belmont Stakes. The Preakness is called "The Run for the Black-Eyed Susans" because of the blanket of Viking daises, decorated to look like Black-eyed Susans (the state flower of Maryland), that is given to the winner. (Actual Black-eyed Susans are not in season during the Preakness.) History Two years before the Preakness was run for the first time, Pimlico introduced its new stakes race for three-year-olds, the Preakness, during its first-ever spring race meet in 1873. Former Maryland Governor, Oden Bowie, named the then mile and a half (2.41 km) race in honor of the colt Preakness from Milton Holbrook Sanford's Preakness Stable in Preakness, Wayne Township, New Jersey, who won the Dinner Party Stakes on the day Pimlico opened (October 25, 1870). The New Jersey name was said to have come from the Native American name Pra-qua-les ''("Quail Woods") for the area. After Preakness won the Dinner Party Stakes, his jockey, Billy Hayward, untied a silk bag of gold coins that hung from a wire stretched across the track from the judges' stand. This was the supposed way that the "wire" at the finish line was introduced and how the awarding of "purse" money came to be. In reality, the term "purse", meaning prize money, had been in use for well over a century. The first Preakness, held on May 27, 1873, drew seven starters. John Chamberlain's three-year-old, Survivor, collected the $2,050 winning purse by galloping home easily by 10 lengths. This was the largest margin until 2004, when Smarty Jones won by 11 1/2 lengths. In 1890, Morris Park Racecourse in the Bronx, New York, hosted the Preakness Stakes, after which there was no race run for three years. For the fifteen years from 1894 to 1908, the race was held at Gravesend Race Track on Coney Island, New York. In 1909, it returned to Pimlico. In March 2009, Magna Entertainment Corp, which owns Pimlico, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, thus throwing open the possibility that the Stakes could move again. On April 13, 2009, the Maryland Legislature approved a plan to buy the Stakes and the Pimlico course if Magna Entertainment could not find a buyer. Triple Crown Series The Preakness is the second leg in the American thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown series and almost always attracts the Kentucky Derby winner, plus some of the other horses that ran in the Derby, and often a few horses that did not start in the race. The Preakness is 1-3/16 miles, or 9-1/2 furlongs, compared to the Kentucky Derby, which is 1-1/4 miles. It is followed by the Belmont Stakes, the third leg, which is 1-1/2 miles. Since 1932, the order of the Triple Crown has been the Kentucky Derby first, followed by the Preakness Stakes, and then the Belmont Stakes. Prior to that, the Preakness was run before the Derby eleven times. On May 12, 1917 and again on May 13, 1922, the Preakness and the Derby were run on the same day. Today, the Preakness is run on the third Saturday in May, two weeks after the Kentucky Derby and three weeks before the Belmont Stakes. Consequently, it can never be run before May 15, nor after May 21. Records '''Most wins by a jockey' *6 - Eddie Arcaro (1941, 1948, 1950, 1951, 1955, 1957) *5 - Pat Day (1985, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1996) *3 - George Barbee (1873, 1876, 1883) *3 - Bill Hartack (1956, 1964, 1969) *3 - Loyd Hughes (1875, 1879, 1880) Most wins by a trainer *7 - R. Wyndham Walden (1875, 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1888) *5 - Thomas J. Healey (1901, 1922, 1923, 1926, 1929) *5 - D. Wayne Lukas (1980, 1985, 1994, 1995, 1999) *5 - Bob Baffert (1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2010) *4 - Jim Fitzsimmons (1930, 1935, 1955, 1957) *4 - Jimmy Jones (1947, 1948, 1956, 1958) *3 - John Whalen (1907, 1911, 1913) Most wins by an owner *7 - Calumet Farm (1941, 1944, 1947, 1948, 1956, 1958, 1968) *5 - George L. Lorillard (1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882) *4 - Harry P. Whitney (1908, 1921, 1927, 1928) Stakes Record *1:53 - Secretariat (1973) 1-3/16 miles (1.91 km) Secretariat, the 1973 winner, was originally credited with a running time of 1:55. Two Daily Racing Form clockers, however, timed him in 1:53 2/5, a new stakes record. A hearing was held over the time discrepency, where a video replay proved reached the wire before Canonero II, the then-current record holder. But instead of giving Secretariat the record, the Maryland Jockey Club decided to split the difference and make its official time of Pimlico's clocker, who had timed the race in 1:54 2/5. The matter was finally resolved in a June 2012 meeting of the Maryland Racing Commission, which unanimously ruled to change Secretariat's final time to 1:53 based on testimony and analysis of the race replays. Margin of Victory *11-1/2 lengths - Smarty Jones (2004) *10 lengths - Survivor (1873) *9-3/4 lengths - Funny Cide (2003) *8 lengths - Count Fleet (1943) Fillies Five fillies have won the Preakness in 136 races: *Flocarline - 1903 *Whimsical - 1906 *Rhine Maiden - 1915 *Nellie Morse - 1924 *Rachel Alexandra - 2009 (Rachel Alexandra was the only horse, male or female, to win from the farthest outside position: the 13th post.) (Three fillies have won the Kentucky Derby in 138 races, and three fillies have won the Belmont Stakes in 143 races. On average, fillies have won between 2% and 3% of the Triple Crown races, with similar numbers for geldings; while about 95% of these high-stakes races have been won by colts.) Winners An * designates a Triple Crown winner. A ** designates a filly. Category:Races Category:Triple Crown Races Category:Stakes races Category:Grade I races Category:Races in the United States Category:Graded stakes races in the United States Category:Grade I stakes races in the United States Category:Articles with Wikipedia content